A couple here for you, courtesy of MadMikeMarsbergen!

THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling

Though you might say Philip K. Dick had a bit of "proto-CyberPunk" going on with some of his books (and the BLADE RUNNER movie), William Gibson is generally credited with creating CyberPunk when he put out BURNING CHROME, a book of short stories in 1982, and his first novel, NEUROMANCER, in 1984. Bruce Sterling is another writer from the same time who helped define this burgeoning CyberPunk subgenre.

With THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, however, the two teamed up to create an alternate-history novel and ended up bringing a SteamPunk novel to the masses, taking it out of its dorky place of relative obscurity. Seriously, have you ever seen a "K.W. Jeter" book at Indigo, Barnes & Noble or whatever big-name bookstore it is that you shop at? Not bloody likely—I certainly haven't, but I have seen Gibson.

Having said that, I wasn't initially all that thrilled with the start of this book. The first forty pages or so took me a few days to get through, as it seemed to be one ginormous, dialogue-borne info-dump with absolutely no way to connect to the characters. Imagine your typical crappy, Watty-winning Wattpad fantasy novel—let's call it "The Heart of the Dragon's Fire," book one of "The Dragon's Breath" series—and how it tosses name after forgettably unique name at you, spewing information about the world's history and ongoing events like your ass after you take a double-dose of laxatives, and you still can't remember what the main character's name is. That was this book at the beginning, and I was very tempted to toss it and read another Jack Reacher book (I'd just finished RUNNING BLIND, and I highly recommend it if you like mystery-thrillers with an intelligent lead who also beats people up if necessary).

But I stuck with it, as I'd enjoyed the four Gibson books I'd read thus far.

And I'm glad I did, as not long after that point of wanting to give up did the book finally start to describe things and draw me into the characters and the world. Though it did get a bit bogged down at times, it was still enjoyable once I got past the dreadfully slow beginning.

Do I recommend this? Absolutely, as there's a lot of work put into this book and I doubt you'll find anything quite like it. Just be aware you may find it starts a tad slow and you might find it isn't quite fast enough for you.

WHEN ELVES ATTACK: A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS GREETING FROM THE CRIMINAL NUTBARS OF THE SUNSHINE STATE by Tim Dorsey

I read this one on Christmas Eve last year and loved it.

This is book fourteen in the "Serge A. Storms" series by Floridian writer Tim Dorsey. Now, these aren't sci-fi novels—not in the slightest; they're actually comic crime/mystery books—however, this one does relate to Christmas, as it's set just before Christmas.

Serge, the main character in this series, is an ADD-afflicted, schizophrenic, Florida-history-loving serial killer who only kills naughty people. He's got a best buddy named Coleman who always seems to be drunk or on drugs, or is looking for a way to become drunk or on drugs. Serge longs to have the normal kind of holiday-season lifestyle he sees others have, and it gets to him this Christmas.

Thus follows the usual kind of madcap, wacky, lightning-fast storytelling Dorsey is known for. Lots of laughs, drugs (courtesy of Coleman) and violence (courtesy of Serge, while Coleman grins, falls over and laughs). I liken Dorsey's writing to a weird blend of Hunter S. Thompson and Terry Pratchett—you likely won't know where the hell the story is going until you get a little ways in.

A perfect read to ignore the in-laws with, this Christmas.